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CHAPTER 42:
THE LAUNCH OF OPERATION LOHENGRIN
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Author's Notes: The pieces for this Chapter are, in order of scene: 'Ocean Palace,' from the CHRONO TRIGGER Original Sound Version, Disc Three; and after this 'The Blue Traveler,' from the XENOGEARS Original Soundtrack, Disc One; and after it 'Flight,' from the XENOGEARS Original Soundtrack, Disc Two. The first composition can be found on Zophar's Domain, and the other two in KINGDOM HEARTS Insider's MP3 section.
"Xion, you need to wake up," Axel's voice sounded from somewhere Xion couldn't locate, taut with drawn and tight terrified horror and worried anguish.
"Kristoff just told us Roxas, Kairi, and Riku went after Sora with Elsa, Anna, and Vanitas."
Xion was awake inside less time than she could tell perception and awareness were present, her eyes all the way open and looking up at Axel's face as she sat against the wall.
There was sensation in her broken wrists and arms, but once again there was nothing more than a pulsating, distant ache everywhere; on every single spun thread of her skin, and anywhere inside her body and heart and brain and being and soul and self and mind and her.
Somehow, she was able to register her heart was pounding as though it were a frayed threadbare string of a jackhammer with terror and horror.
Roxas was in no condition to confront a Xehanort, in his current frame of heart and mind.
Communicably and beyond encompassment two.
Far less defeat one, to say nothing of two at once when the second one was Terra-Xehanort, all by himself.
Xion glanced around fast, to see that everyone else; with the exceptions of Roxas, Riku, Elsa, Kairi, Anna, and Marshmallow; were already standing in different locations in the Usual Spot, or leaning against something, with a variety of expressions on their faces, such as tightly shut concern and fear on Isa's, acutely stark terror and worry on Namine's, and barely contained drawn, sharp terror transcending concepts and rage on Mare's.
Kristoff was standing a little behind Axel, his visage pinched tight with terror and worry of his own.
Ephemer was standing at Xion's left, facing all of them.
Axel was right in front of her, and stark relief blossomed on his expression to see she was awake; but it did nothing to lessen the agony and terror on it.
Xion, however, wished she could just crumple as though she was a punctured balloon around the lacuna lacking even nothingness that was all she'd always been.
If it did or didn't or may not have or couldn't have existed, she could do a polar opposite photonegative of that nothing endlessly infinitely boundlessly even more now.
Ephemer pressed his lips together with set determination and resolve, new guilt in his eyes increasing the fathoms Xion knew, even with everything she had done and said, she couldn't even begin to guess the most infinitesimally barest crust of, and then he spoke; his voice a clear attempt to calm and assure and reassure and soothe all of them.
All it did, though, was halt Xion's breathe entirely for a number of seconds with a new fissure of serrated jagged terror and self hatred through the numbness submerging fullness.
"Now, perhaps more than at any time before; you need to remember the light hovering in the deepest darkness.
"Kairi and Riku and Roxas have forced Strelitzia's hand, and mine; but we can still accelerate what I've named Operation Lohengrin, and set it into motion as soon as I'm done telling you all about it.
"Further, you won't just need to be left out, and you won't be a liability if you accompany us, Xion; even though I extremely highly doubt Strelitzia can think of any way to mend wounds as severe as yours any more than I can.
"You're the wielder of the Keyblade of Hearts; and because of this, you'll be able to play as important a part in it, with tasks as important as, if not even more important than, Sora's tasks, and part."
To Xion's shock, much more lightness than she'd believed possible made it a good deal easier to lean back against the wall.
Axel staggered where he was standing, although he kept his footing.
For a few seconds; a large, open mouthed grin and smile of more glee and joy and delight and relief than Xion could encompass appeared on his face.
The two corners of Isa's lips curled up a little.
Namine's mouth opened a decent mount and turned into a brief grin of her own, before closing and remaining in a weak smile.
Mare's jaw dropped drawn, her eyes flew wide, she swayed on her feet, and tears of relief beyond expression unimaginable brimmed in her eyes and spilled over their rims and down her face.
Ephemer gave them all a smile with warm, assuring cheer; and Xion could tell, even now, it wasn't the tiniest bit forced.
"As much as I'd like for Ven to be a part of this; we can't get a hold of him, and perhaps it's for the best, at least in a minority of ways, we talk to him as little as possible until we've figured out how to trick the Xehanorts," Ephemer continued.
Aqua's two hands spasmed violently at her sides, but she didn't clench them into fists; and she tightened her own lips together incredibly hard and narrowly.
Terra's face shifted through a large number of unidentifiable looks.
"So, this will need to do for me to fill you all in on the details.
"If anyone disapproves of Strelitzia's, and my, strategy; I won't hold it against any of you at all, in any way, if you don't want to be a part of it.
"Is there anything anyone wants to say, or should I begin?"
Xion couldn't think of anything to bring up, and no one else even started to say a word for a large number of seconds.
At last, Aqua inclined her head in regard; and she spoke with a mixture of far more personal trust than Xion had believed she was still capable of, and formal deference, "We await your guidance, Master Ephemer."
Ephemer's lips curled in self depreciation at the title 'Master.'
Xion pushed what little feeling she could experience to the side; knowing Ephemer was most likely about to fill in many of the chasms in what Roxas, Axel, Namine, Isa, and the others had learned over the last year and subsequent weeks; and she would thus very possibly need to take in a lot.
Ephemer began, his words serious and precise, but companionable and easy.
"It's been precisely eleven thousand, six hundred eighty years since the First Keyblade War reconstituted what is now known as the Realm of Fairy Tales; and I arrived in what was then our future exactly four hundred nine years prior to this one."
It was good to at last have a precise date to pin down when the cosmos had ceased to exist as Kingdom Hearts had wished it to.
"I'm not going to go into all of the details about what Strelitzia and I researched in the Book of Prophecies; just the one passage that we believe to be relevant at this time," Ephemer went on.
"For starters, when I first arrived in this relative time and came to enough terms with what had been brought about, and what I now had reason to believe I'd unwittingly assisted in happening; I traveled five realms to discover how they were thriving, or enduring.
"I discovered the large majority of the Heartless that had infested the Realm of Fairy Tales had been imprisoned in the realm of darkness when the realms were recreated in their divided form with the light the Dandelions had gathered before the datascape we'd fled to as refuge from the war fell apart. Due to this; my initial goal became the foundation of a new organization of Keyblade wielders that would travel the fragmented worlds of the realm of light in order to assist the natives in neutralizing natural beings, or ethereal beings, in neutralizing anyone who harnessed the darkness too harmfully for his, her, or its fellows; and to ensure as few Heartless as possible trickled into this realm from the realm of darkness. I also hoped to make contact with a minority of surviving cultures from the First Keyblade War I had reason to believe had holed up in the realm of darkness after the war was over, and were still alive."
Aqua swayed on her feet.
Terra reached over his left hand and clasped her right shoulder gently.
Aqua gave him a grateful, weakly wan smile; and she reached her own hand up to grip his tightly, drawing strength from it.
"Once I'd founded Scala ad Caelum in the world where Daybreak Town's ruins remained, no one returned from the expeditions that volunteered to travel into the realm of darkness; I eventually gave up, although I permitted any Keyblade wielders who wanted to make the effort to confirm there were surviving communities still present in that realm to make the journey if they chose to, as long as it was clear their motives for the undertaking we're ill advised. I don't agree with the Disney Kingdom's precise definition of the world order," Donald scowled slightly, before flattening his beak back together, "But I didn't understand the need for Keyblade wielders, Master and otherwise, to operate as inconspicuously as possible; to avoid causing more problems than we solved.
"Perhaps the largest difference between Scala ad Caelum's concept of the world order, and the Disney Kingdom's, was our willingness to reveal the presence of other worlds outside the ones inhabited by the people we were assisting if we had reason to believe that knowledge could be treated responsibly." Donald's beak dropped open, but he snapped it shut when Goofy frowned a little. "On even rarer occasions, we permitted people to travel off world; but much less often than we revealed the presence of other worlds to people in the cultures we encountered."
Ephemer's lips twisted.
"I have no way of knowing whether even these minor interventions caused interstellar civilizations to develop enough wars across space, such as the War of the Skies, wouldn't have broken out if not for us.
"Depending on how the Dreamreapers fulfilled their roles; plenty of worlds already existed in the form of galactic, galactic cluster, galactic supercluster, or even filament wide civilizations; by the time Scala ad Caelum began to teach large numbers of Keyblade wielders how to safeguard the peoples of the realm of light and the realm in-between.
"You've very likely realized, or believed, what constitutes worlds is determined by the sense of communal organization of its inhabitants.
"The Turo Federation, where Stitch was born, is a good example of one of these filament wide cultures. It's strewn over the entirety of what it sees as the observable universe, or observable realm of light, from the standpoint of its capital planet.
"It wasn't until Scala ad Caelum's Keyblade academies could stand on their own that I started to genuinely plumb the depths of the Book of Prophecies; although I'd by then researched it relatively more lightly, and read through it in order, from cover to cover, plenty of times.
"During my initial investigations; the prophecies appeared to intermingle so well that I'd developed a lot of second guesses about my new doubts in Master Yozora, and the other Foretellers besides Ava. I'd increasingly wondered if my fears Yozora himself was to blame for what had happened to Empyreal were misplaced terror I'd failed Ava as I had him; as well as a cowardly unwillingness to accept that it was solely my, and Skuld's, and his Chirithy's, responsibility for him to have given into the darkness.
"I initially believed he'd been possessed by one of the dark seekers that had originated from Strelitzia's heart; but by the time Scala ad Caelum needed nothing more than advice from me, and no real leadership, I'd figured out Empyreal had pretended to be possessed by the darkness in order to use himself as bait to trap four other darknesses and sacrifice himself for Skuld and myself, as opposed to letting us sacrifice ourselves for him."
Axel's face shifted.
Isa frowned deeply.
"Nevertheless, he still turned his weapon on us as part of that ploy, so I was still sure he'd given into the darkness to a needless depth.
"I'm sure Empyreal's own willingness to descend to that depth rubbed off on Yozora's Heartless; and that's why he picked a duel with Sora, and he treats other people he knows, or meets, similarly."
A number of things passed over Ephemer's face, but they were all gone before what they specifically comprised could be understood.
"From what I've learned about Empyreal's words, and actions, since he reached Gaes; in a large many ways, I'm a lot more worried about Empyreal than about Yozora's Heartless himself.
"This, however, isn't the time or the place to get into what we did to Empyreal.
"In any event, my doubts in Master Yozora resurfaced, and burgeoned; when I first began to really consider the meaning of this passage.
"'The veil on the misapprehended words shall not be lifted; until the stoutest seed sunders obscure darkness whence sifted.'
"During a conversation I had with Ava after I first met Empyreal; she brought up how she believed that the wielders of the Unions, and the Foretellers themselves, ought to think for themselves and feel as they decided to, and not just believe what Master Yozora told them to believe. For example; she believed the Unions ought to cooperate and not see one another, and each other, as rivals.
"I agreed with that, and I implemented that when I was appointed as the leader of one of the five Dandelion Unions.
"Master Yozora appeared to have a good reason for wanting the first five Unions to remain separate; because of the risk of unity between the Unions without a balance of power creating a caste system where a minority, or even a majority, was diminished in favor of that majority or minority.
"However; by harnessing Master Ava's belief the Unions ought to work together and see one another, and each other, as friends; the second set of Unions, Union Cross, was able to maintain a balance of power and prevent any oppression or bigotry.
"So I couldn't believe Master Yozora was totally opposed to the concept of people understanding each other, and one another; or thinking for themselves and choosing how to feel, and deciding how to talk and act from themselves, based upon those feelings and thoughts.
"Yet Yozora appeared to be saying it was absolute truth that there was nothing about darkness to understand.
"As soon as I considered that he might actually be saying that truth can't be found unless all darkness is cast away first, I realized that he was actually saying that.
"To Yozora, darkness says and does nothing but believe in wanton, senseless death and torment. It's no more than distilled sin, and there's no chance it can be compromised with or met in the middle or understood or reconciled with."
"DiZ… he could feel Sora."
"Oh, he told you how he 'felt,' did he? Ridiculous. A Nobody cannot feel anything."
Xion pushed it away as distantly as she could muster the willingness to.
"Once I realized that Yozora was driven by a dream of rejecting the darkness at all costs; with the possible exception of the darkness he may or may not have admitted, in time, this hatred for all darkness had caused to sprout in his own heart; the pieces clicked into place, one by one, or in groups, until the general picture emerged."
Ephemer's face shifted with mostly walled away revulsion that it had taken him so long to see through Yozora's lies; and to become aware of what that had done to everyone, and everything, he loved.
Xion wanted to throw up with empathetic understanding and sympathy, for several seconds.
"Strelitzia and I still haven't figured out the exact specifics about how the First Keyblade War broke the initial Kye-Blade, and condemned Kingdom Hearts along with it; or what happened during the time the battle itself waged at what is now the Keyblade Graveyard, and when Skuld and I discovered the datascape we'd taken refuge in had been programmed to disintegrate along with reality, so we returned to Daybreak Town to see the Realm of Fairy Tales cascading into ruin.
"What I do know, about how the First Keyblade War may bear upon this time; is that Kingdom Hearts remained intact after the Kye-Blade was called, and then splintered.
"It was something other than the ruination of the Kye-Blade that condemned it into the darkness.
"The sole battle in the First Keyblade War was initially a mutual five front engagement between all five Unions; but then Ira gave new orders to Union Unicornis, which, along with Invi's Union, had initially sought to whittle down the other three Unions to prevent anyone from winning the war and calling the Kye-Blade.
"He recognized that attempting this while defending itself wasn't spending the other Unions fast enough, so he ordered his Union to give up all coordinated defensive tactics and strategy and remain intact long enough to prevent anyone from winning the war and taking the Kye-Blade for its own. So he commanded them just focus on offensive maneuvers to take as many of the other Keyblade wielders down with them as they could.
"To preserve this newest balance; Invi ordered her own Union, which had previously been doing the same thing, but while prioritizing whittling down Gula's and Aced's Unions over Ava's and Ira's, to offset Ira's orders by prioritizing defensive operations to expend all four Unions at the same time.
"This at last gave Aced the chance he'd sought for months to avenge Gula's betrayal of him; and he ordered Union Ursus to just make minor efforts defending itself against Ira's and Aced's Unions, and slaughter Gula's Union to the last wielder. Then he called any members of any of the other Unions who wanted to actually become the victors in the war to defect to Union Ursus and combine into what he called an Unchained Union; one powerful enough to prove to Gula that the light sided with people who believed in the might of justice, not in treachery and manipulation."
Pain, and slight anger, manifested on Ephemer's face.
"For the third time, Gula attempted to exploit Ava's trust in him, and friendship with him, by stringing her along as a puppet; this time asking her to defy Yozora's teachings and ally with him to form an even stronger Union he named an Unchained Cross that could protect his Union, and him, from Aced; defeat the other three Unions, all of them relatively weaker and still partially locked in combat with one another; convince as many members of the other Unions as possible to betray their Unions for the combined one by revealing to them what he'd learned from Invi about the Dandelions; and exploit her own Union's trust in her to set them up to give him the rest of their Lux willingly
"Thus enabling him to summon the Kye-Blade and call Kingdom Hearts.
"For the second time, Ava refused to become Gula's puppet; this time, not just to obey Yozora's tutelage, but because she was still horribly hurt from how Gula had lied to her, and exploited their friendship, to maneuver her against Aced the first time.
"She refused to alter how own strategies and tactics at all, which were merely to keep as many people alive as possible to have a chance of living through the cosmic tumult that was in the process of breaking out."
Ephemer's face smoothed out.
"Revealing the presence of the Dandelions enabled Gula to unite an Unchained Cross Leopardus that outnumbered Unchained Union Ursus anyway, though.
"And, by now, Aced wasn't just furious with Gula for his earlier treachery; he hated Gula, because he believed the attention Yozora had paid to Gula, which I now know had been done in order to enhance Gula's self-reliance and ego, was the reason Yozora had so often ignored Aced and told him to speak up if he was nearby; thus teaching Aced his impulsiveness.
"Aced thus harnessed that impulsiveness and sought to ambush Ira, partially to repay Ira for an earlier aborted duel, partially because he knew Ira would once more attempt to stop him if he put his following strategy into action, throwing however many lives away as was necessary to thrust through Gula's lines and take Gula on. This time, Aced refused to let the tides of battle end the duel, so Invi broke it up. Ira, though, then applied the decisiveness Yozora had strung him up with once more; so he relied on Invi to keep Aced and Gula away from each other enough, and he sought to take Gula's newfound advantage in the war away by exploiting what remained of Gula's side of his bond with Ava himself.
"He penetrated her less concentrated lines and dueled her.
"Ira had been unaware of just how well Yozora had played Invi, though, by repeatedly asking Invi if she wished for such selfish events as his disappearance and others; and as Ava's Union was in the most disadvantageous position, she took Ira on in a duel.
"With Ira out of the way, Aced expended most of his Union to penetrate Gula's lines; and sought to take his revenge.
"Once Invi had driven Ira away from Ava, she also endeavored to break up this duel, but it was too late.
"Gula was certain Aced was the traitor who had caused the Unions to begin distrusting each other, and one another, leading to the war; and Aced hated Gula for what he saw as Gula convincing Yozora to treat him as an also-ran, and for how Gula had maneuvered Invi and Ava against him the first time.
"In addition, enough Lux had been harvested from the slain Keyblade wielders it was focused in sufficient concentrations to call the Kye-Blade.
"Both Gula and Aced now had the dark determination to bring the Kye-Blade to them, and their Unions had enough concentrated Lux; as did they themselves.
"They called the Kye-Blade to their hand at the same time, seeking it as the means to resoundingly win their duel with each other.
"I haven't figured out, or learned, the specifics of what happened then; or whether Ava or the other two Foretellers sought to claim the Kye-Blade first with the Lux focused in their own Unions, and their own Lux.
"All I can say for certain is that when the Kye-Blade fragmented, it did so cataclysmically enough to massacre almost everyone participating in the battle; and when I headed to the battlefield afterwards to see if Empyreal was among the survivors, and hopefully successfully recruit him to the Dandelions after an earlier failed effort, Kingdom Hearts was now hovering above the surface of the new Keyblade Graveyard, with darkness covering all but three single dots of radiant light on its surface.
"Ava, and the other four Foretellers, were also nowhere to be seen.
"Around two weeks later, Luxu sent Strelitzia to the future, and one of the three lights blinked out; so one of them was hers.
"I still haven't learned who the other two lights belonged to, but Luxu had clearly been instructed to send Strelitzia to the future when the other two were about to fade away; for within hours on the same day, vanish into the abyss they did, and the rest of the Realm of Fairy Tales faded with them."
Terror washed over Ephemer's face; and he inhaled slowly, and then exhaled at a similar pace.
Xion knew that Ephemer was terrified one of those two lights had been Ava's or Skuld's or Empyreal's; and the other's, his.
Then the terror was gone, and Ephemer's voice was as assured and companionable as it had been before.
"It didn't take me too long, after I realized the truth behind the passage that I just told you about; that I realized it wasn't Strelitzia's data that had survived Vanitas' and Ven's ambush, as I'd initially believed; but Strelitzia herself, because her data had been preserved.
"Without Strelitzia's permission, I can't tell you what had actually happened to her, or where I found her data and her; other than to tell you I needed to awaken her from a coma she was in while all but dead by returning her data to her, and I did so at the location that, for reasons I'm not at liberty to reveal, was renamed the Land of Departure soon after she left for Scala ad Caelum with me."
Axel cringed.
Namine's face shifted in discomfort.
Xion's body, though, just pulsed with another ache at the wish she'd never left Castle Oblivion the first time.
"I showed her the Book of Prophecies; and once she read it, she realized enough from what she remembered going through after Vanitas snapped his trap closed on her, and what her data could inform her of; we were able to connect a decent deal of the dots about how Yozora strives to initiate Synchronicity Perceptual.
"I spent several months ensuring Scala ad Caelum could continue training Keyblade wielders without any advice from me at all; and then Strelitzia and I left Scala ad Caelum.
"Since that time, we've been traveling all the realms of this worldline, investigates the Foretellers' activities and delaying them, or otherwise hindering them, whenever and wherever we can; while keeping ourselves alive, in one form or another, without shifting our hearts from body to body, through methods I need Strelitzia to let me tell you.
"Other than the underlying mandates behind it; that Anna has already uncovered, however; I mean, in the most literal way, we still have no idea at all what the New World of Synchronicity Perceptual is, in and of its self."
Due to what Ephemer had told her about how she still had a chance to make a difference, Xion wasn't surprised to experience a dim rush of disappointment.
"Strelitzia and I haven't been able to confirm much of how we believe Yozora, Luxu, and the Foretellers wish to implement Synchronicity Perceptual, so a good deal of this is conjecture.
"I'll begin with what, through one way or another; for reasons I also can't reveal without betraying Strelitzia's confidence about our investigations after we became real friends; Strelitzia and I have learned are certainties.
"The essential underpinnings of Synchronicity Perceptual are as follows:
"The real Kingdom Hearts; Domain of Tales; Gaes; a third artificial Kingdom Hearts; the Final Door; an empty rift; Lacuna, the Gap Amidst Transparency; a splintered realm of light; the Note Blade; the Kye-Blade; the Keyblade of Hearts; Kairi; the True Dandelion; and an army of graduated Dandelions that were stranded in Gaes after the datascape lost its integrity Luxu refers to as the Luminous Legion."
Fourteen facets of a prism of light as puppet weapons for the seven dark Foretellers.
Xion pushed down the urge to wince.
"The datascape was condemned to fall apart along with the Realm of Fairy Tales in order to ensure the Dandelions with the strongest hearts survived its downfall and were sent to the eons long war still wracking its people, and civilizations. This was to give them the capability to gain new natural forms able to live there, complete their training over the millennia since, and also lose what hope they had in anything but Yozora's edicts from century after century living among little to nothing but everlasting conflict.
"As the first field test of their effectiveness, before he found Empyreal and lost most of his memories; Yozora's Heartless orchestrated an invasion of the Enchanted Dominion by a force much smaller than one with a size almost all present militaries would need to deploy to wage an effective campaign against even an average sized demesne, much less one that spans a planet.
"They passed their test by spurring Maleficent to give into the darkness, something Yozora's Gazing Eye had been uncertain how to cause; as busy as Luxu needed to be setting up all the minor actors for the parts they needed to play in Xehanort's act to create enough memories of the First Keyblade War it could successfully bring Ven to this time, and Yozora along with him.
"Yozora's empty rift is meant to sentence almost every heart in the realm of light into the darkness of a Heartless so many of those hearts can be lured to the greater hearts of each inhuman Dandelion, enough Heartless to each light that the combined Heartless and single lights will effectively cancel each other out and suppress the hearts, and thus all feelings, within each soldier and officer in the Luminous Legion."
Axel fisted one hand very tightly.
Namine clenched them both, but not as tightly.
Isa clenched his teeth.
Xion tamped down a wash of illness.
"Yozora will thus gain an army of unfeeling killers who have endured the conditions necessary to teach them to lose all reservations against obeying the most pragmatic orders, and who then have the ability to attain new happiness when they depart from these lifestyles all but locked away.
"This army is then charged with traversing all the realms of this worldline; and, through ways we haven't identified, assuring Strelitzia can harvest all of the unnatural entities as the personal hearts components of Roxas' artificial Kingdom Hearts; although they themselves won't be a part of it.
"The First Keyblade War began this process in the realms, and worlds, themselves; in order to initiate this reconstitution of the worlds, realms, and stars themselves.
"Maleficent is supposed to return to when Kingdom Hearts, and imaginary time, were initiated; in order to unlock the First Keyhole and open the First Door; and by this enable all of the space time veins extending throughout all the worldlines, from Kingdom Hearts until the present, to be separated from Gaes' space and time planes.
"Xehanort's failsafe is the means for doing this to this single worldline in the present; although Strelitzia knows no more than I do why the Foretellers want his daughter to be Princess of Heart who performs Synchronicity Perceptual, outside of enabling her blood descent from him putting her in an easier position for them to play.
"Mare is fated to add Gaes, the void past it, and Domain of Tales; to a new spatial and temporal continuity."
Mare's face lost every feather of its expression, with the exception of lips pressed into each other so tightly they appeared they were about to crack apart.
Axel jolted violently.
Namine cringed violently.
What was within Xion knotted into coils.
Mare bristled so violently she could have jumped incredibly high into the air.
A little warmth pushed against the backs of Xion's eyeballs.
"The only beings, and states of reality, Yozora wants to keep apart from Synchronicity Perceptual are the twelve other darknesses that fragmented from Strelitzia.
"Not just to avenge Faerie and his friends; but because of their abilities. One of the most dangerous is how, whatever they are; there's something that they can, under specific conditions, make it a lot easier for whole, natural person's heart to achieving; when, as long as that heart has enough light, that heart is inside an empty rift.
"Regardless of what it is, the potential they have to assist that person in accomplishing this frighten even him in ways little to nothing else does."
Xion did not need to have found that one out at this time.
What could terrify someone who wasn't even afraid of whatever darkness lay within Lacuna, the Gap Amidst Transparency, at the lowest fathoms of the endless great abyss, that much?
"Strelitzia hasn't been able to uncover the identity of this being any more than I have; but if those darknesses do enable its inception; above all, Yozora wants it kept out of Synchronicity Perceptual.
"Outside of the thirteen darknesses, and this being, though; anyone and anything else qualifies for Yozora's New World.
"Once the foundations for Synchronicity Perceptual have all been laid in the new space and time; the Keyblade of Hearts is destined to unlock the Final Door to the last Kingdom Hearts, the Kye-Blade the real one.
"Then the Note Blade is mandated to channel all the powers of the real Kingdom Hearts, its light and its darkness; to conduct this new cosmic tapestry through the real Kingdom Hearts into the new one; from which will spring forth Synchronicity Perceptual."
Something was tugging at Xion.
The same mental acuity that had shown her how to hack the network of the first Organization Thirteen, that she'd likely gained from Kairi through Xehanort, and that had been honed to a razor's margin by repeated covert operations for the first Organization Thirteen; told her that she had all of the pieces now.
Perhaps not the shards of what Roxas' Kingdom Hearts, the Note Blade, and the Final Door themselves were.
But she knew precisely how those three components were fated to distill it from the real Kingdom Hearts, and the current realities.
As she also at last had all the pieces she needed to assemble to discern what the New World of Synchronicity Perceptual was.
Roxas was fated to become a Kingdom Hearts comprised of a single person's heart; and not the current real Kingdom Hearts, an amalgamation of the hearts of every person and star and world.
Even the Note Blade, with every droplet of light and darkness from within this coagulated Kingdom Hearts at its disposal; couldn't weave together Synchronicity Perceptual from a practically fully recomposed cosmos.
But an artificial Kingdom Hearts; that was opened by a Final Door that had a Final Keyhole of a form Xion couldn't guess the function of at all, if any Keyhole whatsoever; and that could connect to the hearts of stars and worlds and hearts without combining with them; could.
What was Xion missing?
All she knew was that it was something so cleanly and finally simple she shouldn't even need to think about it for a second.
A New World that was nothing but closed doors and vacant hallways, where all darkness had been extinguished by snuffing out all light along with it; imagined by the creator of the Dream Eaters.
A nearly entirely rearranged current cosmos, overseen by a Kingdom Hearts that combined all hearts.
A Kingdom Hearts that drifted entirely alone, yet could still touch the others after they'd been vitalized to live on in their newly transposed identity.
A Note Blade that could conduct whatever symphony its wielder chose with even the most brilliant light within that Kingdom Hearts; and not just its darkness, or its ordinary uncorrupted or tainted light.
How did the jigsaw patch itself together?
Xion knew better than to believe that figuring the answer out, at long last; would give her the slimmest gossamer of a better chance at protecting Roxas, Axel, Mare, Elsa, Namine, Isa, Tidus, Olette, Pence, Hayner, and all of the others; however.
"Strelitzia and I have learned what Sora's in danger from at Ivalice Zodiac, though.
"Or, more specifically, in the segment of Symphony of Sorcery Mickey locked away when he shattered the dreamstone motherlode known as History's Eclipse; at the cost of separating a sizeable minority of what is still called Ivalice Zodiac from the rest of what Yen Sid later named Symphony of Sorcery.
"It's not the dreamstone itself that is a threat to Sora; although his nature as the Kye-Blade would put him at risk from it even if he wasn't the Persona, something Strelitzia and I also haven't confirmed."
Tears brimmed in Namine's eyes, and a minority fell free.
Xion pushed down the urge to clench her teeth.
"Dreamstone, and another mineral; are merely the inner and outer shells of what can be said to be Kingdom Hearts' version of Gummi blocks.
"It's the wall itself that endangers Sora if he's the Persona; and if that's right, even knowing what that wall is will expose Sora to it."
A lesser number of tears cascaded down Namine's face.
"Mickey is overstating things to believe that even a general amount of knowledge of what caused the War of the Skies, and how it progressed; will endanger Sora, though.
"That's Mickey's fear of ensuring people know very little about the wider realm of light talking, due to what he unwittingly brought about there."
Donald snarled at Ephemer.
Goofy gave Donald a disapproving frown, but the magician lifted his head and turned his beak, and face, away.
"In layperson's terms; Mickey first asked for permission to land armed forces from the Disney Kingdom in order to drag the Beagles out of Ivalice Zodiac's territory; and Luxu arranged for the most influential nobles in the noble houses of Beoulve and Solidor, Zalbaag Beoulve and Vayne Solidor, to see a glimpse into the Gazing Eye that convinced them Mickey was allied with the nascent Luminous Legion.
"Mickey's invasion was purportedly a pretext to give the Luminous Legion a foothold on Ivalice Zodiac, and enslave all the people there under a hypocritically shining order that would establish a caste autocracy.
"Zalbaag bought the lies; but Vayne saw through them; and while Strelitzia and I were unable to find out what he believed, Vayne even realized what Synchronicity Perceptual was as much as Xehanort, albeit likely in regards to different aspects of it.
"Up until then, Vayne and Zalbaag had been firm believers in a democratic meritocracy and a democratic monarchy; but the vision of the Luminous Legion's impending invasion, and Vayne's initial awareness of the truth behind it; scared both of them into believing an autocratic meritocracy, or an autocratic monarchy; was the sole means of banishing the Beagles, and the Disney Kingdom's forces, along with it, and then keeping the Luminous Legion off their planet afterwards.
"Each nascent autocrat saw the other as potentially too dangerous a rival; so they began a two front war with each other, and the Beagles, caring little to nothing for the smaller houses and lands caught in the middle.
"Vayne initially just wanted to protect his home planet, although on his own terms, and just told Mickey to keep his army off their world when he requested permission to land it. Zalbaag, though, with the urging of his even less scrupulous older brother, Dycedarg; retaliated against Mickey requesting to land on Ivalice Zodiac by invading the Disney Kingdom to outflank him. In addition, this gave the Beagles the opportunity they believed they needed to remove the Beoulves as a thorn in their side. Worsening the situation, by this point the domains and houses caught in the middle had become so angry at how much they'd become collateral that Leon's foster sister, Ellone; was making headway in uniting them against all three of the threats to their prosperity and contentment.
"Vayne thus saw a chance to defeat all four of his foes at once. He invited Mickey to land, and then he altered his military operations against the Beoulves and the Beagles and Ellone's Returners to defensive ones that would keep them out of Solidor territory while he kept Mickey and the Disney Kingdom's army on Ivalice. Vayne's terms for allowing Mickey to leave was an alliance that would appoint Vayne as such an influential military advisor to the Disney Kingdom he'd become its de facto power behind the throne.
"Mickey refused to be extorted; but by then he, Minnie, and Scrooge were stuck on Ivalice Zodiac with no way off.
"As Vayne had anticipated; the Beagles then rallied the populace unaffiliated with the Returners against the Disney Kingdom, depriving the Returners of most of the resources they needed to hold onto what scraps of their own sovereignty they could, and also allowing them to fashion a unified front that endeavored to invade the Disney Kingdom themselves.
"This forced the Beoulves to bear the brunt of the war with the Beagles themselves, or risk Mickey sending messengers through the blockade and calling in reinforcements that would render the advantage they now appeared to have less tenable.
"Vayne intended to sit back and let all three sides drain each other's soldiers and resources, after which he'd finish off the survivors, while focusing on keeping Mickey and his armies cut off from the Disney Kingdom.
"This also gave him breathing space to develop countermeasures against the Foretellers themselves; and the plan he came up with was to use Scrooge's presence on the planet to call in favors from three of Scrooge's greatest business rivals, whose names you already know.
"Not to add to his resources; he knew they wouldn't risk their assets on a world embroiled in a four way conflict.
"He did, however; lure them into giving him openings he then exploited to seize special equipment of theirs he'd figured out from his vision had much more potential than they believed. He had also learned by then that Luther Lansfeld had been appointed the head of Sphere with funding from Luxu."
Axel clenched his teeth tightly, and squeezed his hands into new fists.
Namine winced violently.
Isa snarled.
Xion forced down a scared rush of hurt.
"Luther had been the one to fund the mining expedition Vayne and Zalbaag made to History's Eclipse where they saw the visions; so Vayne made these overtures to all three rivals to draw Luther himself to Ivalice Zodiac by making overtures to both of Scrooge's other business adversaries; and then capture Luther, and torture whatever he knew about the Foretellers, and the Luminous Legion, out of him.
"This is where what I can tell you becomes risky; but suffice to say that Vayne's essential objective was to utilize seven star hearts to excavate the motherlode in a way that would enable him to then mine the mineral behind its crust; and infuse his daughter with that mineral as soon as she was born to turn her into a weapon he believed would defeat the Foretellers and the Luminous Legion in a preemptive second war he'd declare against them once he'd defended Ivalice Zodiac, and the Disney Kingdom, in accordance with his definition of it.
"And, if he won, utilize Schala to eventually find a way to re-forge the Kye-Blade; to create a New World of dark order where another war, or potential war, this bloody; would be waged for the rest of time.
"Mickey ended the war by uncovering a means to ally with the Returners right under Vayne's nose, and then cooperate with them to defeat the Beoulves, the Beagles, Scrooge's rivals, and Vayne.
"But the cost of this victory was the death and torture of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians caught among six sided political and economic chaos; lasting impoverishment that has lasted on the planet; the division of Ivalice Zodiac into two partitions; and the necessity of Larsa cooperating with Yen Sid to lock both portions of the world away from the realm of light at large in order to keep the substance beneath both crusts out of the hands of anyone in the wider realm of light, as, to all our knowledge, it hasn't been located on any other planet.
"I have my beliefs as to why, but I can't take the danger of giving speech to them.
"It's dreamstone's opposing substance that we'll need to retrieve from Symphony of Sorcery; but I won't go into detail about what it is, and why, until I've brought you to it.
"We need as many elements of surprise as we can strive to retain if we're going to pull this off.
"There's two other things I know that aren't conjecture, or dangerous for Sora to become aware of unintentionally.
"One of our successes against the Foretellers was to convince them Strelitzia's twelve seekers of darkness created the door Pete traveled through after the Cornerstone of Light.
"That was really Strelitzia, through means I can't tell you, to distract Maleficent from discovering the fragments of the Keyblade of Hearts inside Sora's heart before they'd finished decaying; thus also alerting the first Organization Thirteen to Xion's presence there, and Maleficent and Pete along with them; without alerting the Foretellers we were rewriting Xehanort's, and their, dual script, when we had the chance."
Why did Xion feel even a small bit lighter, far less so much she could feel the numbness around her legs recede enough to know they were weak; at the knowledge she had a friend who hadn't forgotten her, and was most likely about to make a second one?
"We're not sure we've been able to keep how far we're willing to go to interfere with the Foretellers secret from them, and how Strelitzia has been up and about for over four centuries concealed, too; or, at least, from Luxu and Yozora's Nobody.
"But; while they may very well be feigning it, specifically to dissuade us from becoming too involved; we still need to take the chance that, as far as they know, Strelitzia remains comatose, and I'm still a loyal Union leader.
"With this in mind, we stayed out of Xehanort's first effort to foment a new Keyblade War; but once we saw what that led to, we gave things shoves of our own during his second endeavor."
Aqua, still clutching Terra's hand, and vice versa; removed all of her feelings from her visage.
So did Terra.
"I defended Sora from the Heartless when he first arrived in Traverse Town before he woke up; and when Lauriam intercepted Sora before he could catch up with Pluto and read the letter where Mickey had intended to direct them to Yen Sid," so that was what had been in that letter, "Strelitzia disposed of it before the Organization's loyal followers, or the rebels, could learn Yen Sid had risked parking the Mysterious Tower near Castle Oblivion. Additionally, I lured Peter Pan to Sora's location when he first arrived in Neverland; refusing to chance them meeting up later when the situation had taken as much of a downturn as it had.
"During Sora's second adventure, Strelitzia also ensured enough driftwood remained near Eric, for him to survive long enough after Heartless acting without Ursula influencing them wrecked his ship, for Ariel to find him. Ursula's original scheme for setting Ariel up the second time was to use him as more direct extortion for blackmailing Ariel by saving him from the shipwreck herself, altering him into one of the merfolk, and then orchestrating a meeting between the two.
"She then intended to wait until Eric had spent enough time with Ariel, with the two able to communicate; for Ariel to fully understand how much he admired her singing talents as a person, and not as a court fixture.
"Then she was going to reveal Eric was a human who preferred the company of his dog, and other nonhumans, to living as a court fixture himself; and, unless Ariel became her agent once more, this time by luring Sora, Donald, and Goofy into a trap she herself would spring after she'd taken her father's trident for herself without his permission; Ursula would keep him sealed as a merperson until he died.
"I drew Luxord into a search for the cursed gold in the Caribbean after Jack Sparrow shot Barbossa, because he was on the verge of interfering in Oogie Boogie's conflict with the Skellington Jack to give Xemnas and Saix another Nobody and Heartless.
"I also lured the peddler to the location of Jafar's lamp; because the first Organization Thirteen had just located it, and they were about to recover it themselves and then simply wish for him to give his heart all the way up to the darkness, thus giving them their new Heartless and Nobody.
"We were reasonably sure Sora could defeat Ursula a second time if she'd had the chance to utilize that strategy; but we didn't want to risk her joining up with Maleficent, so Strelitzia put Ariel in a better position to refuse the second blackmail.
"It's up to Strelitzia whether or not to tell you when, and how, we risked tipping our hand during the last journey he finished.
"The other thing I can tell you is that; if you're hoping Young Xehanort will return to his future self's first goal, of merely casting the realm of light into another temporary slumber until he revises it, if he can get a totally functioning Kye-Blade fully under his sway; it's possible, but very unlikely.
"He assigned his contingency to be orchestrated also if it became clear he couldn't hold onto an entirely re-forged Kye-Blade for long after smelting it back together was over, and Young Xehanort is now aware he's as much of a portal as his real version.
"Now that you can take all this into account; while Strelitzia and I myself needed to wait for Sora to learn what he was, and Maleficent to be put at another disadvantage, in order for it to have its best chance of succeeding without tipping our hand first; the actual goal of Operation Lohengrin is very simple.
"It will very likely take all of our skills and cooperation to pull it off, as, even though we now ought to have the ability to claim it, our target lies under the heaviest guard it has since Luxu first acquired it; even though it currently isn't in the possession of Luxu himself.
"Luxu, and the other Foretellers, have been able to pull the strings of most of the realm of light for so many millennia because they don't need to spend that much time setting events into being themselves.
"They merely need to wait for new developments to occur, and then research the Book of Prophecies to correlate its passages with what is currently taking place and decipher another of its predictions, as beheld by the Gazing Eye Yozora won't reclaim until he recompletes himself when the hour of Synchronicity Perceptual is at hand."
Xion pushed down the urge to clench her teeth at the revelation Yozora did intend to recomplete himself, due to how talented and skilled Ira had revealed Yozora was.
"Due to this; if the Kye-Blade, the Keyblade of Hearts, or a regular Keyblade in the hands of an exceptionally proficient Master or wielder; can separate the Gazing Eye from the first No Name that Christopher is currently preventing Luxu from bringing to his side; the Foretellers' ability to rope us along will be drastically crippled, and they'll become much more vulnerable to defeat through Goofy's plot or another, if they're no longer able to trust that any of the prophecies in their books from the point after we steal it, and that they haven't yet deciphered, are as accurate as the ones that have already come true."
"Who are you?"
"What does it matter? I'm here for you."
"Why are you trying to stop me?"
"Because I want back the rest of Sora's memories."
"Sora, Sora, Sora! Enough about Sora!"
"Do you have some kind of plan?"
"I'm going to set Kingdom Hearts free! Then everything can go back to the way it was! Me, and Axel, and… and her can go on having ice cream together."
"Her? You mean Xion? It's a struggle just to remember the name now, isn't it? Either way, I can't let you go doing anything crazy."
"I have to find this Sora person, and freeing Kingdom Hearts is the only way! I want Xion back. I want my life back!"
"If you try and make contact with Kingdom Hearts, the last thing you'll get is your life back. The Organization will destroy you."
"Shut up!"
"Why!? Why do you have the Keyblade?"
"Shut up!"
"Why don't you quit?"
"Come on, Sora. I thought you were stronger than that."
"Huh? Get real! Look which one of us is winning."
"So it's true. You really are his Nobody. Guess DiZ was right after all."
"What are you talking about? I am me! Nobody else!"
"Riku, please! You have to stop him!"
"How many times do I have to beat you?"
"All right. You've left me with no other choice."
"What?"
"I have to release the power in my heart– The dark power that I've been holding back. Even if… it changes me forever.
"I have accepted it.
"DiZ… he could feel Sora."
"Oh, he told you how he 'felt,' did he? Ridiculous. A Nobody cannot feel anything."
Xion didn't know if it was her that was unable to see through the water blinding all presence and being, or breathe; or reality itself that was drowning of both oxygen and the vacuum.
She could still see, however, that Axel's mouth was hanging fully open.
"Hey, Xion, good morning."
"Good morning."
"Listen–"
"Sorry, I gotta' go."
"Roxas. How are you feeling today?"
"Same as always."
"I have an urgent mission especially for you and your Keyblade. There's a Heartless that's surfaced in Halloween Town. I was hoping you might exterminate it for us."
"S… Sure… Leave it to me!"
"Hey, whoa whoa whoa… Roxas, you really wanna' do that?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
"It's just, lately you–"
"Shouldn't you already be out on your mission, Axel?"
"Yeah, I need to get ready, too. Let's catch up later!"
"Still no Heartless. Where is this thing hiding, anyway?"
"Wh–What!? How could it get this close to me without me noticing?"
"It's… it's too powerful. I've gotta' finish this now, before it wears me down any further. It's all or nothing…"
"Stop, both of you!"
"Xion!?"
"Roxas? Wh… What are you doing here? The Heartless I was fighting – it was you?"
"This mission was a setup."
"What?"
"It was rigged so you two would battle each other."
"Me and Xion? But…"
"They would do that?"
"Roxas… I'm out of time. Even if I'm not ready… I have to make this choice. You have poured so many memories into me… given me so much… that I feel like I'm about to overflow. Look at me, Roxas. Who do you see? If you see somebody else's face… a boy's face… then that means I'm almost ready. This puppet will have to play her part. Roxas… This is him. It's Sora. You're next, Roxas. I have to make you a part of me, too. Don't you see? This is why I was created."
"Now you'll see!"
"Is that all you've got? Stop holding back! Get ready, Roxas!"
"Who are you… again? It's weird. I feel like I'm forgetting something really important."
"You'll be… better off now… Roxas.
"Am I… the one who did this to you?
"No… It was my choice… to go away now. Better that, than to do nothing… and let Xemnas have his way. I belong with Sora. And now, I am going back… to be with him. Roxas… I need you… to do me a favor. All those hearts that I've captured… Kingdom Hearts… Set them free."
"Kingdom Hearts… Free them?"
"It's too late… for me to undo my mistakes. But you can't let Xemnas… have Kingdom Hearts. You can't. Goodbye, Roxas. See you again. I'm glad… I got to meet you. Oh… and of course, Axel, too. You're both my best friends. Never forget. That's the truth."
"Roxas, don't be sad. I came from you and Sora. I am you… the same way that I am Sora. You'll forget me, but the memories themselves will never go away. Memories of you and me will always be together… forever, inside him."
Namine fell to her knees as though she'd never even known how to walk on the ends of strings.
She could make things right; and protect Roxas, and Axel, and Mare, and Tidus, and Namine, and Isa, and Olette, and Hayner, and Pence.
She could make all of it right, and protect everyone, and everything.
"Please don't hold back, Axel. Promise."
"What's your problem? You both… think you can do whatever you want. Well, I'm sick of it. Go on, you just keep running. But I'll always be there to bring you back!"
Mare staggered back violently and crashed onto her back; and if not for how her eyes were still blinking, and tears were spilling down her own cheeks; Xion would have believed she'd become catatonic.
Xion didn't know the specifics of how Ephemer, or anyone else, would enable her to wield the Keyblade of Hearts with both of her wrists broken; but so much drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, drawn, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, utter, drawn relief took even the ability to take in any gases, even omnipresent hydrogen, into lungs and the veins reaching out to everyone and anything about her heart she was so light she could even stand with entire firm steadiness on a void or the singularity of a supermassive black hole at the nexus of a quasar or vacuum.
Even what she'd done to Ven just pushed at the edges of her awareness now.
"Simply amazing, Roxas."
"Axel."
"You really do remember me this time? I'm so flattered. But you're too late!"
"Two!? Come here. I'm make it all stop."
"Roxas…"
"Axel…"
"Let's meet again in the next life."
"Yeah. I'll be waiting."
"Silly. Just because you have a next life…"
"It's no use!"
"Don't stop moving, or the darkness will overtake you!"
"Get goin'!"
"Why?"
"Don't ask. Just do it!"
"You okay?"
"I kidnapped Kairi, but she got away from me. After that, Saix caught her. He's a member of Organization Thirteen. Saix. Got it memorized? Now go save her!"
"Leave us alone!"
"I think I liked it better when they were on my side."
"Feeling a little… regret?"
"Nah… I can handle these punks. Watch this!"
"Whoa!"
"You're… fading away…"
"Well, that's what happens when you put your whole being into an attack. You know what I mean? Not that Nobodies actually have beings… right? Anyway, I digress. Go, find Kairi. Oh, almost forgot… Sorry for what I did to her."
"When we find her, you can tell her that yourself."
"Think I'll pass. My heart just wouldn't be in it, you know? Haven't got one."
"Axel, what were you trying to do?"
"I wanted to see Roxas. He… was the only one I liked… He made me feel… like I had a heart. It's kind of… funny… You make me feel… the same… Kairi's in the castle dungeon. Now go."
"Axel…"
A slight, but real, smile was now on Isa's face.
Xion knew Tidus would be grinning, brightly, as well; if he was here to hear this.
Xion realized her face was aching so much, not because she was numb; but because she herself was grinning so brightly it felt as though it would carve her skull into shards of its own.
"Roxas… I'm out of time. Even if I'm not ready… I have to make this choice. You have poured so many memories into me… given me so much… that I feel like I'm about to overflow. Look at me, Roxas. Who do you see? If you see somebody else's face… a boy's face… then that means I'm almost ready. This puppet will have to play her part. Roxas… This is him. It's Sora. You're next, Roxas. I have to make you a part of me, too. Don't you see? This is why I was created."
"Now you'll see!"
"Is that all you've got? Stop holding back! Get ready, Roxas!"
"So it's true. You really are his Nobody. Guess DiZ was right after all."
"What are you talking about? I am me! Nobody else!"
"Riku, please! You have to stop him!"
She wouldn't give up this time.
Riku had given Roxas the answers he'd wanted; but because Xion had given up, Roxas had been too blinded by hopeless self hatred and rash despair to see what they meant, and he'd thrown them all away to seek to cast his life into the abyss along with them.
Almost dragging Axel into the chasm of death alongside him.
If she just hadn't given up, as soon as Riku had told Roxas who he was; all of it would have unwound differently.
Not this time.
It didn't matter what she'd done to Ven.
It didn't matter what she'd done, or said; in the past.
It didn't matter what had happened to Jiminy.
It didn't matter what had happened to Bo, the Little Green Men, and Bo's sheep.
It didn't matter what had happened to the worldwide culture of all the toys of Toy Box.
It didn't matter what anyone had done, or said; in the past.
This time, there wasn't even going to be a need for Roxas, Axel, Namine, Isa, Mare, Elsa, Tidus, Pence, Olette, and Hayner; or anyone else at all; to long for anything back.
Nor did she need any power to keep it from happening another time.
Even with two broken wrists, even frail and a repeated traitor to both light and darkness and memory and reality and identity and hearts themselves, she could still do it.
She could protect Roxas.
She could protect Axel.
She could protect them all.
And then, at fornever last and for all infinite everlasting; Roxas and Axel would never cry tears, or pain, or torment, or rage for as long as they lived, in this life and any subsequent ones.
Everything could at last go back to the way it had been, and they'd laugh and grin forever together.
Xion's eyes hurt so much from how achingly they burned, and her face pulsated with so much agony from how widely she was grinned; she almost couldn't talk.
"In that case, what are we waiting for?"
Xion couldn't tell if any air was moving in, or out, of her mouth, at all; as she spoke the words, and soundless spaces between each one, every last single syllable and letter and inflection and word reverberating with resounding hope that deafened herself, anyone, and every which when.
She almost didn't perceive the small amount of wariness in Ephemer's voice as he spoke back, "We're not waiting for anything.
"Also because the Foretellers are based out of Scala ad Caelum, not the Xehanorts; and the time has arrived for the essential actors on their stage to make their first real choices about their lines.
"Strelitzia, as well as I myself, am pretty sure that won't involve the casting of Roxas' Kingdom Hearts or the Final Door.
"However, we don't know whether or not Sora will need to decide whether or not to sacrifice Anna or Elsa, and complete the Note Blade; or at least make one of the two decisions; a lot sooner than you've believed; on this very night."
Sora, Sora, Sora. Enough about Sora.
Roxas and Axel might not be in as much danger now, and protecting them; and giving them back their past; was what mattered.
Xion was barely aware that Axel's face was even shifting in response to this, or anyone else's.
There was nothing but steady confidence in her voice when she cried with euphoric giddiness, "Then let's get a move on!"
.
"Broken by the power of a clenched fist
Desires and blood flow
In the palm of my hand
.
"Endless wings and chains suit me well
Their weight keeps me
From going anywhere
.
"With young eyes that have only seen loss
People think of stars
That they won't be returning to
.
"Making our respective lights
Bloom with our lives
Life is what transports us
.
"Radiantly cut into everyone
Are gentle vestiges of scars"
'Vestige'
GUNDAM SEED DESTINY